I’ve seen Costco take a quick wipe with a dampened rag and brake cleaner before applying stick-on weights.
Do tire shops need to clean wheels before sticking balancing weights on them?
- Thread starter lizpat
- Start date
never had much luck with heat guns, but I think the salt on the roads is what's preventing sticking in winter
Someone who is competent, and takes pride in their work, will clean the surface where weight needs to be applied, and won't use methods that damage the surface in the process. Unfortunately a competent Tech who knows what they are doing and takes pride in their work isn't common, in my experience. Which is why I buy car and truck tires from my friend who owns a tire store, and he lets me install my own tires.
I saw some of the earlier comments. I hope they were referring to using a steel brush on a steel wheel. If anyone scrapes the powdercoating off the inside of my wheel, they're buying it.
It probably won't be necessary on your wheels, wylie. But just the other week I had a mazda3 in that had half an inch of baked and caked on grime on both back wheels. Car had a flat but needed to be legal until the replacement gets delivered so 2 new tyres. Had to use sandpaper to get to a clean surface....
I used brake cleaner to remove heavy brake dust or glass cleaner as a quick wipe down. Farm truck wheels covered in crap usually go to the pressure washer before anything is done. Can’t balance them with caked on mud.
Clean wheels are always good to have for balancing. Somebody needs to clean it off one way or the other. Getting old tape residue off is even worse, so do that if possible. I do a lot of tire installations for people that are sometimes too meticulous, and wax the backside before I work on them. Then you get to clean that off too. I quit using nasty brake-clean, and started using 91% rubbing alcohol which works better, and less toxic for tape weight prep.
We used to use Varsol to clean these surfaces. Got to "massage" a strip of weights, too, to get them to fit the concavity correctly.
I've left adhesive behind. Got paid flat rate working at a discount tire shop. Nearly every tire shop is a "discount" tire shop, so cosmetics often get a back seat. Sticky weights, and the flange-less rims that require them, are a dumb, vain invention.
I've left adhesive behind. Got paid flat rate working at a discount tire shop. Nearly every tire shop is a "discount" tire shop, so cosmetics often get a back seat. Sticky weights, and the flange-less rims that require them, are a dumb, vain invention.
Discount tire was nice enough to use a wire wheel on a drill or something and removed some of the finish on the edge. 
Word of Caution: Some brake cleaners will dissolve paint (and clear coat!). I believe it's sometimes the non-chlorinated variety, never the chlorinated. Be careful if the words "High Power" or such are on the label.
I'd recommend denatured alcohol. It isn't as effective, but it will never dissolve paint. It's biggest disadvantage is that isn't very good at dissolving old adhesive. Use a plastic scraper first!
Oh, and this wire wheel and sandpaper thing? A terrible idea!! That might have been OK when wheels were always made of steel and tire used tubes, but a wire wheel will gouge aluminum pretty quickly and leaves the surface full of scratches (that can leak!)
I'd recommend denatured alcohol. It isn't as effective, but it will never dissolve paint. It's biggest disadvantage is that isn't very good at dissolving old adhesive. Use a plastic scraper first!
Oh, and this wire wheel and sandpaper thing? A terrible idea!! That might have been OK when wheels were always made of steel and tire used tubes, but a wire wheel will gouge aluminum pretty quickly and leaves the surface full of scratches (that can leak!)
Yes. If they can't put that little bit of effort into doing the job correctly I wouldn't want them to do the actual balance or let them get near the lug nuts.
Hammer on weights no. Stick on weights, yes. Adhesive doesn't stick to dust, dirt, grease, oil, wax, etc. If the weights did stick then you might get lucky, I've had them pop off over the years when the were glued on dirty wheels, classic shoddy workmanship imo. I just had tires put on my father's car and they actually cleaned the wheels before doing the job.
Last edited:
Good to know it's my responsibility. I meant to take it
What I'm going to do is to clean the area around the stick on weights, and then add reinforcement adhesive such as Flextape.
Absolutely.
About 10 years ago I had tires mounted and balanced on my mustang. Driving home from work the next day I heard what sounded like a rock bouncing around in my wheel followed by a vibration in the steering. Brought the car back to the shop and the owner told me the guy that balanced the tires didn't clean the rim and the stick on weight fell off. The owner rebalanced all four tires personally.
About 10 years ago I had tires mounted and balanced on my mustang. Driving home from work the next day I heard what sounded like a rock bouncing around in my wheel followed by a vibration in the steering. Brought the car back to the shop and the owner told me the guy that balanced the tires didn't clean the rim and the stick on weight fell off. The owner rebalanced all four tires personally.
When a shop changed my tires, the tech sprayed brake clean or something on a paper towel and wiped the inside of the rim.
When I was having a rim replaced, I cleaned the inside of the rim myself.
When I was having a rim replaced, I cleaned the inside of the rim myself.
